


Best-Laid Plans

by FoxVII



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Dean Winchester, Angel Sam Winchester, Hunter Castiel, Hunter Gabriel (Supernatural), M/M, reverse verse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 07:39:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16929192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxVII/pseuds/FoxVII
Summary: Castiel had opened the door that day expecting his takeout delivery. What he got instead was a trail of blood leading from the porch to his kitchen.When Gabriel shows up at his door for the first time in two years, Castiel is drawn back into the world that he (sort-of) left behind. But to be fair, he hadn't tried too hard.





	1. To A Mouse

**Author's Note:**

> A very happy birthday to Amie (@riversandroads)! I love you so much! Couldn't finish all of it on time but I hope the part that's written does suffice. :) 
> 
> And as always, thank you to Medha (@bikeross) for the beta!

Castiel had opened the door that day expecting his takeout delivery. What he got instead was a trail of blood leading from the porch to his kitchen. Crimson drops pooled on the white linoleum, partially absorbed by a long-ruined, once-white shirt.

“Ow.”

“Stop complaining.”

“ _Ow._ ”

“No.”

“Your bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired, little bro. Do you treat all your patients like this?”

“Only when it’s my brother,” Castiel answered. He knelt beside the kitchen chair that Gabriel had slung himself onto once he’d staggered inside. Cas was painted to his elbows in red, though that was nothing compared to the volume smeared over Gabriel’s side and stomach. In an abstract way it was almost fascinating, the amount of blood that a human body could produce. In a physical, _factual_ way, it was closer to horrifying.

“This wasn’t from a werewolf,” Cas noted, as he worked. Gabriel remained tense under him, though whether that was because of his ministrations or his line of questioning was unclear.

“Aren’t you supposed to numb the area or something before you start stitching?”

“Yes, Gabriel, I keep the lidocaine next to the Advil in my bathroom cabinet,” Cas answered dully, and without looking up. “These lacerations are far too deep and spread too far apart to be from a werewolf’s paw.”

“Bathroom cabinet? So why don’t you go get some, then?”

“ _Gabriel._ ” Cas tugged the end of the thread tighter than was strictly necessary, eliciting a sharp hiss from his brother. “What. Happened?”

“A hunt?”

“It’s always a hunt,” Cas groused, returning to his work. “Hunting what?”

“Told you. A wolf.”

“And I told you that I don’t buy it.” Cas finished up the stitches, tying off the end and reaching for the scissors. His kitchen table had been transformed into an impromptu surgical bay.

“Cassie…”

“No! You _vanish_ , without a word. And I let you! For _two_ years, I let you. I didn’t call. I didn’t text. I didn’t bother you. But you’re the one who showed up here, like _this_ ,” Cas gestured at Gabriel. “And that means you owe me an explanation.” He slapped a bandage in place and sat back on his heels, caught between irritation and concern.

“Fenrir,” Gabriel answered, after a prolonged silence.

“Come again?”

“The thing that attacked me. It was Fenrir.”

Castiel resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was covered with enough blood as it was. “Please tell me that’s just the name of some alpha werewolf.”

“Nope,” Gabriel smacked the ‘p’ as he said it. “Actual Fenrir.”

That did nothing to quell either the annoyance _or_ worry. “Why, pray tell, have you gotten tangled with a demigo--”

“ _Castiel?_ ” A female voice cut through the moment. Castiel’s head snapped to the side, and he was on his feet a moment later, darting back towards the open front door. He caught her before she reached the kitchen.

“Hannah! It’s okay.”

“The door was open and there’s blood all over the-- _what happened to you?_ ” Hannah’s voice rose an octave with her panic.

“It’s fine,” Cas soothed.

Hannah spared a second to let Castiel know, with a look, that she thought he was full of shit. She returned to her fussing a beat later. “You,” she began, as though she were speaking to a particularly slow child, “Are _covered_ in blood.”

“It isn’t mine.”

“Oh, well that’s reassuring.” She didn’t sound reassured, and Castiel hardly blamed her.

“Hannah,” Castiel said, gingerly nudging her toward the kitchen. “Meet my brother. Gabriel.” Hannah’s eyes followed the blood trail into the kitchen and eventually landed on the man in question. For his part, Gabriel looked altogether too pleased for someone who’d just had a chunk taken out of him by a demigod. Cas glowered at him from behind Hannah’s shoulder to _behave_.

Gabriel did not.

“I’d shake your hand but I’m covered in blood! Also, I don’t know what my brother did to deserve you, but you can definitely do better. You are absolutely settling.”

Castiel quickly ushered her out of the kitchen.

 

***

 

“That your girl?”

“You sound far too smug for someone who went up against a demigod,” Castiel countered. He’d settled Gabriel into one of the spare bedrooms after having cleaned off the kitchen. “Which brings us back to how you ended up being attacked by a demigod.”

“No, no, I’d really much rather hear about whatever you had to do to make a stunner like _that_ even glance your way,” Gabriel pat-patted the spot beside him on the bed as though it were storytime. Castiel neglected to sit.

“She’s a nurse, at the hospital,” Cas grudgingly offered.

“Cas, you dog.”

“It wasn’t like that!”

“Sure it wasn’t. No doctor/nurse action? No long looks as you’re passing one another in the hallway? No taking off into unused rooms for--”

“Please keep talking, I’d love to throw you out of my home.”

“You wouldn’t dare. I’m your favourite brother,” Gabriel countered, relaxing back against the pillows with a contented sigh.

“You’re my _only_ brother.”

“Exactly.”

They were silent for a moment, and then, “Does she know?”

“About?”

“You know. The life.”

Cas shook his head. “No. I haven’t told her and I don’t intend to either.”

“You still hunt?”

“No, not so much. Anymore. I’m more help at the hospital. Hunters know that I know what’s out there, so it’s a safe place for them to go to get treatment without someone asking too many questions.”

“Look at you. All grown up. Big shot doctor. Helping people.”

“Still doing my placement. Not _fully_ a doctor but...getting there.”

“Still. Look at you. Actual job. House. Girl. What, you living together?”

“Not officially, but we’ve talked about it,” Cas answered, trying to hide his smile by looking down at his feet. “Maybe in the next year.”

“I’m proud of you.”

Cas flushed. “Thank you.”

“Shut up.” But there was no malice to it.

Cas wandered over to sit at the foot of the bed. Gabriel twisted the sheets between his fingers during the silence, then smoothed them out before asking, “How’s dad?”

Chuck Shurley was the author of the most comprehensive Bestiary known to the hunting community and several other treatises on the supernatural to boot. He was also the main reason why his sons had ended up in the life. They’d learned to hunt almost by force, dragged from place to place, fighting things off as their father did his research.

“Good. I swing by once a week to make sure he hasn’t forgotten to eat.”

“That’s good. And uh…”

“Nick is still--”

“Right. And Michael…?”

“No change. And before you ask, Aunt Amara still hates you for leaving when you did.”

“Figures.” Gabriel sighed softly, staring at the sheets as though the pattern of the comforter cover was about to whisper to him all the answers of life. “I...I wanted to, you know.”

“No, I don’t.”

“It just--” Gabriel’s words got caught somewhere in his throat and Cas went silent, waiting for him to finish. He studied the wallpaper in the meantime, the hideous gold on green pattern that he’d been meaning to replace when he got time. “Just. The more time that went by, the more it seemed like I couldn't. Come back, that is. That I’d left it too long.”

Cas sighed, putting a hand over the blanket-covered lump that was Gabriel’s foot. “You could have. At any point.” He sighed. “Where did you go, anyway?”

“Monte Carlo.”

“Monte Ca--Of course you did.”

“Yup. Drinking. Gambling. Porn stars. Oh, it was beautiful. You would have hated it,” he added, in the same wistful tone.

Well, he wasn’t wrong.

“Drinking, gambling…” Cas reasoned aloud. “Let me guess. You ran out of money.”

“I...Noooo. I explained to Loki that I was a good investment. He didn’t agree.”

“Loki?”

“Yep.”

“Fenrir. Loki. How did you get tangled with the Norse pantheon?”

“Turns out, they run the casino. And when I couldn’t pay up, they tried to sell me.”

“They what?” Cas was suddenly on his feet, annoyance immediately washed away by concern and fury.

“Well I mean, they tried. It never got that far,” Gabriel hastily amended. “I escaped. Don't think they really expected me to put up a fight. And I guess I might have owed them a fair bit of money because Fenrir has been after me ever since. Or well. He _was_. I managed to off him a couple hours outside of Amarillo.”

Castiel couldn't help but be a little impressed with that. “Wood?”

Gabriel winked. “You got it. So don't worry, bro. No one's following me. They lost their trail _ages_ ago.”

Which, of course, was when the front door broke open.

Castiel’s eyes flicked upward, as though beseeching the heavens for mercy. Beside him, Gabriel’s mouth tightened to a thin, unimpressed line.  

“Raspberries.”

Cas spares a second to turn and shoot a look at Gabriel. “I'm twenty six years old. You can swear in front of me.”

“Old habits.” Gabriel threw off the sheets and struggled out of bed, hot on Cas’ heels as they darted downstairs.

Cas braked at the end of the stairs, eyeing the two intruders. One looked like he'd stepped off a motorcycle, while the other looked like a walking commercial for Men's Weekly.

Energy... _magic_ flashed over their faces, the appearance of a skull and a horse's head respectively. Cas was acutely aware of Gabriel standing behind him, and while he appreciated his brother's presence, he also didn't want him anywhere near this. He'd only just finished stitching him up.

But they weren't the only people in this house and Castiel knew he couldn't take on both of them on his own. Hell, he wasn't entirely certain he would be able to survive the one.

“Cas?” Hannah's concerned voice from the top of the stairs had Castiel throwing himself at the larger of the two men, sending them both stumbling backward.

“Don't come downstairs!” he yells, and is promptly thrown into a wall.  From the grunting and sound of breaking glass, he surmised that Gabriel had tackled the other assailant. Sleipnir, he assumed, given the horse motif. And he was up against Narfi. And if this kept up, he really needed to brush up on his Norse mythology.

But could it be called mythology if it was real? If he was actually grappling a demigod and trying to keep from being throttled to death? No, in that case it's more legend than myth.

Strange where one's thoughts could go while oxygen deprived.

Castiel found the strength to bring his own arms up and force Narfi's away from his throat, aiming a solid kick to his solar plexus that has the demigod forced a step away from him, back slamming into the edge of the countertop. Cas spied the sink, plugged with water and full of dishes he hadn’t had a chance to get to yet.

Surely there was something pointy in there for him to use.

Narfi's next strike shoved him in the sink's direction anyway and he went with the movement, turning to quickly glance at what was within arm's reach.

Or...he could just stuff Narfi's head underwater. He reached up to grab him by the collar, using the surprise of bringing him _closer_ to send him careening face first against the sink. Cas threw his weight onto him, pinning him down with a forearm along the back of his neck as he began to struggle.

Behind him was a sudden crash and he spared a look over his shoulder to see how Gabriel was.

He was on the floor, apparently, staring up at Hannah in shock. The remains of a chair lay splintered around them, the back of it still clutched in Hannah's hands, the part that she must have been holding when she brought it down on Sleipnir's head.

“You know, I was full of shit before but now I _absolutely_ know that my brother hasn't done anything to deserve you.”

“Gabriel!” Cas hollered from the kitchen. Sleipnir looked momentarily incapacitated but Narfi was still trying to struggle his way out of the sink.

“Two seconds, sweetheart,” Gabriel threw a charming smile Hannah's way before snatching up one of the shattered chair legs. He sprinted over and jammed the splintered end into Narfi's back.

Narfi struggled for a moment. Then two. Then went still.

Castiel didn't let go until he'd gone completely slack. Without his weight holding him down, the demigod slipped from the counter and slumped onto the floor.

His first thought was that he had _more_ cleaning to do now. And he hadn't even finished the dishes yet.

The sudden sound of  footsteps pulled both his and Gabriel's attention to the living room, just in time to see Sleipnir make his hasty escape.

Hannah continued to cling to the remains of the chair. “Mind explaining why you were waterboarding someone in your kitchen?” she asked, with a level of calm that was surprising for a woman who had just witnessed a homicide.

“Hell of a girl,” Gabriel commented, poking Narfi's corpse with his toe.

Hannah most certainly was.

 

***

 

“You're a hunter,” Hannah echoed. She was sitting on one of the remaining dining room chairs, elbows leaned against her knees.

“I'm a hunter,” Cas confirmed. He crouched in front of her, taking her hands in his.

“Because ghosts and vampires and werewolves are real.”

“They're real.”

“And that was...a demigod that you killed in the kitchen.”

“Finished stuffing Narfi's body into a car compactor! We shouldn't be hearing from him again,” Gabriel said cheerily, coming back into the house.

Cas didn't look up. “The demigod Narfi, yes.”

To his credit, Gabriel hung back, tiptoeing to the mess of a kitchen and began rooting around for a snack.

“How long have you been doing this?” Hannah asked, softly.

“All my life, really. It's...something of a family tradition.” Cas let go of her hands, resting his own against his knees. He felt eyes on him and looked up to see Gabriel give him a pointed look, managing to look severe, even while chomping on a Twix bar.

They might have gone a few years without seeing one another but Castiel's ability to read his brother's expressions hadn't vanished. And he didn't need Gabriel to tell him that he was in danger. With Sleipnir on the run, there was every possibility that more would be coming after him. This house wasn't safe anymore.

Hannah wouldn’t be either if she kept associating with him.

“Hannah...what happened here tonight. I won't ask you to involve yourself in this world. I would have rathered that you never found out about what lurks in the night. But...Sleipnir. He saw you. If you stay here, you won't be safe.”

“And you're not going to be safe out there,” she pointed out.

“I know how to protect myself. And...I need to help finish this.” His eyes flicked again to Gabriel who was chewing thoughtfully, staring out into the distance, lost in thought. “For now...I think--I need you to go home. Go home and be alert. If anything happens, call me, immediately. But I need to leave for a couple days.” He tried for a smile. “Cover for me at work?”

Hannah wound her arms around his shoulders and Cas pushed himself up on his knees to meet her. She felt warm against him, and smelled like comfort and home and _simplicity_. He didn’t want to leave, not really, and while he could have told Gabriel to fend for himself, he wanted that even less.

Gabriel was his brother. He could return home once Sleipnir was wiped off the map.

A shuffle of movement from behind him - as Gabriel slipped outside - drew his attention, and Castiel pulled away from Hannah. He cupped her cheek in his palm for a moment, staring into her eyes before pressing a chaste kiss to her lips.

He helped her to her feet, watched as she gathered her coat and purse, and followed her out the door. The bolt of the lock thudded into the box of the door-frame with an unnerving kind of finality. He _was_ coming home, eventually. This wouldn’t be the last time he’d lock this door.

He turned, rooted to his porch as he watched Hannah back her car out of the driveway. She stopped on the curb, waving to him before pulling away.

Castiel slung his coat over his arm and stepped over to the remaining car in the driveway. Ostentatious as it was, he didn’t need to see Gabriel in the driver’s seat to know that it was his. The light of the street lamps glinted off the shiny gold exterior as he opened the passenger side door and slid into the seat, dropping down to settle in the Corvette’s low cab.

“You didn’t have to come, you know,” Gabriel murmured from beside him. He sounded pleased, despite himself.

“You know I did.” Now that Sleipnir had seen Hannah, she would be in danger until the demigod was dealt with. Never mind that he wasn’t letting his brother tangle with more gods on his own. “I do have a question for you, however.”

“Shoot.”

“Could you possibly have found a flashier car? I don’t think this one’s quite showy enough for your taste.”

Gabriel laughs and pats the top of the dashboard lovingly. “1969 Chevy Corvette Convertible in Riverside Gold,” he told him. “Isn’t she pretty?”

‘She’ certainly was, though Cas wasn’t sure if it was the colour that drew his brother, or the year. Knowing Gabriel, it was likely a bit of both.

 

***

 

“Now, if I know Sleipnir, I know he’s going to be running right back to Loki’s skirts. If we find him, we find Loki and you can go back home to your white-picket-fence life.”

“My fence was unpainted,” Cas replied. “So how do we find Sleipnir?”

“Tracking spell? Easiest option.”

“True, but neither of us are particularly good at magic,” Cas pointed out. Gabriel’s jaw tightened, as did his hands on the steering wheel. “So we have two options then.”

“No.”

“I haven’t even said anything yet!” Cas protested.

“Don’t need to. I know who you’re thinking of, and no. To both.”

“Balthazar wou--”

“We are absolutely not stopping by that dick’s shop. No.”

“Okay. Then the other option is Aunt Ama--”

“Also no.”

“Gabriel!”

“She will literally slaughter me.”

“If you won’t go to Balty then our aunt is our next choice.”

“Oh he’s _Balty_ now is he?” Gabriel spat, with venom.

“Gabriel! Make up your mind!”

“Fine.” He went silent, fuming and thinking. The thrum of the wind against his ears filled the silence as Castiel waited for an answer. Gabriel had turned the top of the convertible down as soon as the sun had risen and the day had begun to warm. Finally, he changed lanes, taking the exit that would lead them out of the city’s core, to the quieter suburbs. “I’m going to drop you a block away from Amara’s and then you come back with the tracking spell.”

“If you’re trying to hide from her, you know that isn’t going to work.”

“Will too.”

“She’s a witch. Chances are, she already knows you’re in town.”

“And if she hasn’t contacted me yet, she isn’t going to. So I’m safe.”

“And you’ll look like even more the coward if you’re waiting in the car a block away while I go to ask her for a favour, _for you_.”

Gabriel went silent again, then whined softly. “She’s _scary_.”

Cas reached over and patted his leg.”I know. I know.”

 

***

 

Amara descended on him in a flurry of swirling black chiffon. “If it isn’t my favourite nephew!”

Castiel struggled to breathe under the force of her too-tight hug and too many kisses. “Gabriel is here too.” From behind them, Gabriel gave a weak wave.

“I know what I said,” she told him, briskly, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and leading him inside the house. She pushed Castiel down onto the couch, fussing over the bruises blooming on his skin from their run-in with Narfi.

“Poor thing,” she clucked her tongue at him. “I’ll get you something for those,” she told him, sweeping from the room, her dress fluttering in the air behind her. A cat hopped up onto the arm of the couch, butting her head against Cas’ shoulder before making herself comfortable on his lap.

Gabriel sat down on an armchair across from Cas. “Well, that could’ve gone worse.”

“I think there’s a dead rat under your chair.”

Gabriel made a gagging noise and yanked his feet up to rest them on the edge of the coffee table. Amara returned and he slowly, gingerly lowered them again. Gabriel wasn’t interested in dying today.

Amara set a plate of cookies on the coffee table and dropped onto the couch beside Castiel, making cooing noises at him as she pressed a small, wrapped pouch to a bruise on the side of his face. Immediately it began to fade.

Gabriel tried to reach for a cookie. Amara snapped away from Cas and swept the plate out of Gabriel’s reach before he could acquire one. “These are for you, Cassie,” she told him, shooing the cat away to set the plate in his lap instead. “ _Just_ for you,” she added, with special emphasis.

“I couldn't possibly finish all of these right now,” he protested.

“I'll wrap them for you. And you'll have them. Yourself.”

“I--”

“I'll know if you don't,” she told him. And he believed her.

“Yes ma'am.”

“Now. What can I do for you?”

“We need help tracking someone. Some _thing_ , rather. A demigod. Sleipnir.”

Amara heaved a sigh. “And why do I suspect that this was your brother's doing?”

Gabriel smiled weakly from his seat. Amara continued to ignore him. “But anything for my favourite nephew. Do you have something of his?” The comforting - and at once, dangerous - thing about their aunt was that she didn't ask questions. She merely dished out whatever supernatural danger they needed.

Gabriel sifted through his pockets and pulled out a switchblade. He flicked it open, revealing flaking blood along the knife edge.

“Will this work?”

Amara didn't take it until Castiel plucked it from Gabriel's open palm. The moment the knife settled into his hand, it was like being shot back in time.

 

_“Gabriel!” He was younger, only twelve, sprinting from the motel door to the car waiting outside. Their father was already in the driver's side, the hum of the engine loud enough to force him to raise his voice to be heard._

_Gabriel stopped and turned, brows furrowed into a frown. “I told you, kiddo, you're not coming with us.”_

_“I know,” Cas pouted. “I wasn't going to ask. Again…I just….”_

_Gabriel waited a moment for him to get the words out himself before he prodded him. “Spit it out, Cassie.”_

_Cas shoved his hand out. A folded switchblade rested on his palm. “Here. I got this for you. I just thought...if I can't go with you to help, then I can give you something that'll help you look after yourself.”_

_Gabriel stared at the blade before picking it up. “Cas, where'd you get this?”_

_That wasn't a happy tone. It was jarring, considering Gabriel's normal levity._

_“I didn't steal it!” Cas quickly told him. “I bought it!”_

_Gabriel blinked at him and then set both hands on his shoulders. At twelve, the top of Cas’ head already almost reached Gabriel's shoulders. “Cassie….this is great, ok? The knife. It's real great,” he assured. “But I don't know who you bought this from, or where, but anyone who's willing to sell a knife to a kid isn't good people, okay? You're lucky to have gotten out of wherever you did. Promise me-_ **_promise_ ** _\- that you'll never do that again.” Gabriel thought for a moment and then held the knife out. “Swear it on the knife.”_

_Cas huffed. “I swear it on the knife,” he mumbled._

_Gabriel grinned at him and pulled him into a hug. Against his chest, Castiel could hear his heart beating rapidly. Too fast._

_Gabriel was_ **_scared_ ** _. For him._

_“Leave the bad decisions to me next time, ok?”_

_“Okay, Gabriel,” Cas answered, his voice muffled by Gabriel's shirt._

 

“You kept it,” Cas murmured.

“Never leave home without it,” Gabriel answered. “Good 'ol angel blade.”

“Angel blade?”

“Well it's gotten me out of more than a few jams. That knife's more of a guardian angel than anything else.”

Amara gently took it from Cas. “This is his blood?” she asked, addressing Gabriel for the first time.

Gabriel nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then this will work.”

 

***

 

They left a half hour later, armed with the tracking spell, a location, and a Tupperware full of cookies.

Amara's hand landed on Gabriel's shoulder before he could escape from the house, long nails biting into him even through the leather jacket.

“He forgave you,” she noted, looking out at Cas, crossing the street to get to the parked Corvette.

“He did,” Gabriel murmured.

“Don't screw it up,” Amara told him, turning him so she could meet her nephew's eyes.

“I'll try not to.”

“No, Gabriel. You'll do more than try.” She sighed and pulled him into a hug.

Wrapped in the arms of his aunt, he felt suddenly emotional as his own arms came up to return it. “I. I'm sorry. After Nick-- How….how are you? Dealing with it?”

Amara pulled away, looking sorrowful. “That thing? He….he's not my son. Not anymore. ” Her expression hardened. “But I _will_ get him back, Gabe. There has to be a way. I just haven't found it yet.”

Gabriel took a steadying breath and nodded. “I’m sticking around for a bit, this time. If you need a hand…”

“Go deal with your crisis first. I have mine under control. And Michael’s helping me too.” Her eldest son, and Gabriel and Cas’ other cousin. “Go.” She nudged him along.

Gabriel could see her watching them from the door even as the Corvette roared to life and pulled away.

 

***

 

Cas laid a map on his lap, folding the edges so that they didn't trail off the sides of his seat. He held the charmed pendulum over the map. It swung once and then snapped to a point over the map, as though drawn there by a magnet. The crystal of the pendulum trembled in place. Sleipnir hadn't yet moved.

“Still on the outskirts of town?”

Cas nodded. “I'll keep checking now and again to make sure he's not on the run.”

His phone rang and he dug one hand into his pocket, fishing it out. He didn't check the caller ID before accepting the call and bringing it up to his ear.

“Hello?”

“ _Cas_!”

His back went ramrod stiff as his stomach jumped to somewhere around his throat. “Hannah?” Gabriel wisely brought the car to the side of the road. “Hannah, what’s wrong? Where are you?”

“My apartment. It’s Sleipnir, he--”

And the line went dead.

“Hannah!” Cas stared at his phone for a moment then dropped it entirely, diverting his attention to the map and the pendulum.

“Where’s Hannah’s apartment?” Gabriel asked, his voice pitched sharp enough to cut through the fog of fear. Cas pointed it out with one shaking hand.

“That’s. In the opposite direction from what the tracking spell tells us.”

Cas met his eyes. Gabriel didn’t need to say it for Cas to know what he was thinking. _Maybe it’s a trick._ He shook his head. “I-I can’t. I can’t risk it.”

Gabriel nodded once in understanding, checked over his shoulder and pulled the car around. “Then we’re headed there first.”

 

***

 

Cas didn’t wait for the car to come to a full stop. As soon as Gabriel pulled into the parking lot of Hannah’s apartment, he was out, sprinting for the door. Gabriel threw the car in park and was by his side by the time Cas finished fumbling between keys and had the main entrance unlocked.

He took the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, bounding to the fourth floor by taking the steps two at a time. He was more successful in opening Hannah’s door, bursting in within moments of reaching her floor.

“Hannah?”

Silence.

And then everything went sideways and his vision faded to black.

 

***

 

He wished that he could say that this was his first time waking up tied to a chair, but in this line of work, it was a frequent enough occurrence.

Why monsters didn’t simply kill them once they had them unconscious, Castiel didn’t know. Perhaps, like some humans, they simply enjoyed the sound of their own voices.

His head hurt and even the dim light of the warehouse pricked at his eyes as Castiel lifted his head. He heard a shift and a groan behind him and he twisted around as far as he could go. He saw a shock of gold hair by his shoulder and relaxed fractionally. Gabriel. And he was alive at least.

Gabriel rested the back of his head against the side of Cas’ neck. “Yknow. That’s still the best sleep I’ve had in awhile.”

That drew a helpless laugh from Castiel anyway.

“Once you’re done laughing, we can get started,” a voice drawled from their side. Cas craned his neck further to see. He caught sight of a bright, paisley jacket.

“Really makin’ sure your death’s gonna be painful, aren’t you, Sleipnir?”

Well, that confirms it. “Where is Hannah?” Cas demanded,. He couldn’t see his face from here but somehow he knew he was smirking. The expression didn’t quite suit him, not when demigod radiated an aura of skittish energy, as though he was ready to bolt in a second if the tables were turned on him.

“A trick of my father’s. I think I learned it well. Well enough to get the two of you.”

“That’s really not answering my bro’s questions,” Gabriel said, somehow managing to sound at once angry and bored.

The snap of fingers echoed over the empty warehouse, followed by the sound of muffled yelling. “Hannah?” Cas asked, voice rising with alarm.

“Her mouth’s taped shut, Cassie,” Gabriel murmured to him, as the sounds of Hannah’s struggling increased. “So what’re you planning, Sleippy? Gonna use the girl to...what? You really gotta think these things through.”

“I’m going to make you suffer!”

“Sorry, girl’s nothing to me.”

“Gabriel!” Cas hissed, yanking at his bonds.

“Sh, Cas,” Gabriel murmured at him, again. Cas felt movement against their bonds, and the faint sound of scratching.

“Not to you, no, but she is to your brother! I. I’m going to make sure he hates you. I thought of killing him in front of you instead, but. But this is better! This way it hurts more. Father would be proud.”

Cas could _feel_ Gabriel smile. “Aw! Still trying to make your dad love you? That’s cute. I mean, he’s pretty much as ‘heartless bitch’ as they come so I don’t doubt that it’s a hell of a mission to get him to care about you.”

“Shut up. You can’t talk about fathers, not with what I’ve heard about yours--”

“Hit a nerve, did I? The difference between you and I is that I, at least, know I have daddy issues. And believe you me, I’m not running around trying to get him to love me. Mostly cause I know he _does_ love me. In his own fucked up way. But hey, you don’t even have _that_ , do you? Sucks to be you,” he scoffed.

There was a brief strangled noise, fading to breathless panting as Hannah was released. The rapid approach of footsteps announced Sleipnir’s advance, and then Castiel felt him looming over Gabriel.

“You think you’re smart? You’re worthless.”

“Maybe, but I got you to put the girl down. And I’m also going to be the one to kill you,” Gabriel said, cheerily.

With a final cut, the rope fell to the ground and they were both up. Gabriel drove his knee into Sleipnir's gut, then jammed the blade of the switch knife into the side of his throat, using the leverage the handle gave him to wrestle Sleipnir to the floor.

“Cas! Wood!”

Castiel followed Hannah's earlier trick and smashed the chair down against the floor, picking the sturdiest splintered piece and passing to to Gabriel, taking up the role of holding Sleipnir down.

“Wait! No!” he begged, eyes flicking from the shattered point of the chair to Gabriel and back.

Gabriel mock pouted down at him, Cas snorted  a laugh, then Gabriel rammed the chair leg into his chest.

Both remained still for a moment, then exhaled their relief in unison, snickering off the last dregs of adrenaline.

“Told you,” Gabriel said, between giggles, waggling the switchblade at him. “I never leave home without it.”

Cas laughed with him, leaning over to rest his forehead against Gabriel’s shoulder. By the time he looked over at Hannah there was still fear in her eyes.

Only this time, it was directed at him.

 

***

 

“You were right, you know,” Hannah said. They were standing outside of her apartment, having escorted her back there. Gabriel was off disposing of Sleipnir's body. It was an eerie mimic of the day before and somehow, it didn't feel like a coincidence. More that the universe was trying to prove a point.

“Right about?”

“Trying to keep that life from me. And trying to get out,” she added, giving him a meaningful look.

Cas looked down at his shoes, then back up at Hannah. He was going to miss those eyes.

“I guess so. But trying to get out and actually doing it are two different things.”

“Doesn't help that you never tried _that_ hard-- don't give me that look. All those unexplained illnesses you magically took care of for all those years? Those were hunters, and you were helping them. And that's a good thing, Cas. You...you found what you were meant to do a long time ago. And it's helping people. But not from the inside of a hospital.”

She took his hand and squeezed it and they stood silently like that for a moment, holding onto one another without speaking.

“If anything ever happens,” Cas began in a murmur. “If the room ever goes suddenly cold. If you ever see lights flickering without cause. If you know in your gut that something is wrong...it probably is. Trust that. Listen to that...and if you ever need help, call me. And I'll take care of it.”

“I will. I promise.”

They hugged. Hannah went inside her apartment. And this time, the click of the lock _did_ feel final.

Castiel slowly walked outside. Gabriel had since returned, idling by the doors and checking something on his phone. He glanced up at him as Cas slid into the passenger seat, then away. “Wanna talk about it?”

“No.” A beat of silence and then, “Can I pick the music?”

Gabriel set down his phone and huffed, shifting the car into drive and pulling out onto the road. “Not a chance.”


	2. Sweet Talker, Sweet Taker

Days bled into months after that. They still hunted Loki, part for Gabriel's own vindication and part because it wasn't clear if Sleipnir had told Loki about Hannah before he'd died. He couldn't take the risk that she was still in danger. 

But as they followed lead to lead they also took care of whatever local, monster-related disaster they came across. That meant having fallen straight back into their old lifestyle consisting of cheap diners, cheaper motels and…

“How are you buying all of these?” Castiel asked, looking through Gabriel’s grocery bag of snacks. “Are you still running those credit card scams?” he asked, raising his voice to be heard over the rumble of the truck that was idling at the next gas pump over.

Gabriel shot him a look. “Cheese and crackers, Cassie, you wanna say that louder? I don’t think they heard you the next town over.” He swiped one of the aforementioned cards at the pump and hopped into the driver’s seat, hastily pulling away. “But to answer your question, yeah. Hunting doesn’t pay well...and I long since ran out of what I’d made in Monte Carlo.”

“In that case, can you buy something other than chocolate and chips? Or,” he pulled out one bag, giving it, and Gabriel, an unimpressed look. “Or chocolate chips?”

“Hey, I also buy those pre-packaged sandwiches. That has lettuce in it.”

“Doesn’t count. Oh! That reminds me.” Cas pulled out his phone, thumbing across the screen. “I think we have ourselves a mystery.”

“The real mystery is how you’re still getting reception when we’re in the butt-end of nowhere,” Gabriel replied, giving the sky a dubious look.

“I’m on a superior network, evidently. Now, I’ve been looking at local news reports and, apparently, there’s been a rash of missing babies near here..”

“First of all: what kind of sick bag of dicks? And secondly, how does this remind you of pre-packaged sandwiches? Third: what makes you thin this is our kind of job?”

“Because the babies are being snatched from their cribs in the dead of the night. No open windows. Nothing. And, the disappearances are happening in Lawrence and that’s also where we’re going to find--”

“The Family Business,” Gabriel finished. The Family Business was a pub owned by Mary Winchester that acted as both a safe haven and a meeting spot for hunters. They also happened to serve the best burgers in the country as far as Castiel was concerned.

“So, you’re telling me that you dug up a case just because you have a craving?”

“Well that wasn’t exactly how it worked but I won’t complain about the coincidence,” Cas said, settling back as Gabriel took the next turn, pulling onto the highway.

 

***

 

Burgers acquired, they tracked down the last family to have their child stolen. Though puzzled as to why the case had been passed into the hands of the FBI, the distraught mother let them inside to retell her story. As she spoke, Castiel scanned the nursery. Nothing looked out of place. It was painted pink, decorated over with the image of twisting leaves and branches. 

The mother had assured them that the window had been kept shut and that there was no trace of a burglary when they’d discovered the baby missing the next morning. So how had it - whatever it was - entered the room?

The only way into the room was the window and the door.

Castiel closed it, peering at the back. 

Beside the door, between the wall and the frame, was a smaller door, screwed into the wall. “What’s this?” Castiel asked, crouching to examine it. It had a pair of fake double doors, opening but showing nothing but the solid wall beyond it.

“Hm?” The woman peered at it. “Oh, it’s just a Faerie Door. A decoration. They’re being sold at the toy store in town. The package says it lets fairies into your house. I just thought it was cute.”

Castiel shared a look with his brother. “You wouldn’t happen to have an address to that toy shop, would you?”

 

***

 

“ _ Fae _ ? Don’t people know better than to mess with that shit?”

“No, not when they don’t think they’re real.” They drove down to the toy store. It was a squat, nondescript unit wedged between two others in an average looking strip mall. But then, these places always did look deceivingly normal on the outside. 

A bell set above the door tinkled pleasantly as Cas pushed the door open. It looked the same as any normal toy store. Brightly coloured packages lined the shelves. Stuffed animals laid piled in baskets, patiently waiting for a new home. Gabriel dug out a stuffed platypus from the mix, giving the thing an affectionate squeeze on the beak. 

Near the middle of the store sat boxes of Faerie Doors, with one of them open on display at the top of the stack. Cas picked it up, turning it over in his hands.

“Is that for a little girl?” An old woman appeared out of nowhere, appearing at Castiel’s elbow. The stoop of her spine made her appear even smaller, and her hands were knobby and gnarled as she pointed at the Faerie Door in his hands.

“Ah...maybe a boy? I have...a son.” 

Something in her expression changed.”They’re best for girls’ rooms.” 

“Ah….uh, do you make these yourself?”

She grinned a mouthful of unnaturally white teeth at him. “Every one.” 

Cas weakly smiled back and set the Faerie Door down and scooted for the door, plucking the stuffed platypus out of Gabriel’s hands and yanking him to the door.

“She’s behind all this,” Cas said, once they were by the car again.

“Oh yeah? What gave it away?” Gabriel asked, dryly. 

“She makes the doors herself, she insisted on them going into a girl’s room. All the missing babies have been little girls. And she just....feels wrong.”

“I was being sarcastic, Cassie. Who raised you? The woman looks like she stepped off the pages of Hansel and Gretel. In our line of work, that’s damning enough.” 

Cas stepped around to the rear of the car and popped open the trunk, fishing through it for one of their father’s Bestiaries. “I think she’s a hag,” he said, flipping the thing open and thumbing to the H’s. The book was old and worn by now, one of the first editions their father had put out. Notes littered the corners, additions that they’d penned in themselves. He found the page he needed and held it open for Gabriel: 

_ Hags propagate by snatching and devouring human infants. After stealing a baby from its cradle or its mother's womb, the hag consumes the poor child. A week later, the hag gives birth to a daughter who looks human until her thirteenth birthday, whereupon the child transforms into the spitting image of her hag mother. Hags sometimes raise the daughters they spawn, creating covens. A hag might also return the child to its grieving parents, only to watch from the shadows as the child grows up to become a horror. _

Gabriel was silent for a moment. “Those babies. Are they already…?”

Cas winced, his stomach already churning. “She didn’t  _ look _ pregnant...and she’d only need the one child, to propagate with, right? If she has multiples, maybe she’s gathering them for some other reason or she’s trying to pick the best one.”

“Either way, we don’t have much time. You think she’s keeping the babies in the shop?”

“That’d my my guess. There was an open Faerie Door in there as well. We need to come back tonight and give it another look. There’s probably a back room, or basement level that we should scout. We also need to keep a look out for a spell book, and destroy that too, if she was summoned. Otherwise, dad’s got a banishing spell down here that should do the trick,” Cas said, tapping a section at the bottom of the page. 

Gabriel nodded, looking a little green. “Guess we’re coming back tonight.” 

 

***

 

Once the sun had set, they made their way back to the toy store. It was somehow both comforting and not, knowing that his years spent trying to be normal hadn’t again sensitized him to the petty crime of breaking and entering. He was calm as Gabriel knelt in front of the lock, sliding the pick in place. His brother stopped, and frowned at the lock. “It’s already open,” he murmured, standing and laying a cautious hand on the door knob.

The bell tinkled again and they both winced, the normally-soft sound resounding as obscenely loud now, in the dead of night. Gabriel paused, waiting for anyone’s approach - or the sudden trill of a security alarm - and pressed inside when there was none.

Cas pulled out a flashlight to light their way, silently gesturing for Gabriel to follow. He’d noticed a back door the last time he was here, which seemed promising. Both froze before they could get there. The stumble of additional footsteps signalled that someone  - or something - was coming closer.

Gabriel swore under his breath -  _ “Strawberries _ ” - and stood so that his back was against Cas’. The steps came closer, then seemed to dart away. Gabriel was faster, leaping on the other figure, pointing the flashlight threatening in its face.

Both froze. Again.

_ “Dad?!”  _

Chuck smiled weakly at them both, pinned onto the ground by his eldest son. “Hey, you two. Oh, Gabriel. You’re back in the country!”

“I called you to tell you that he was,” Cas said.

“Oh! Did you leave a message?”

“Yes!”

“I haven't been checking my messages…” 

“Dad, what are you doing here?” Gabriel interrupted. He picked himself off his father, holding his hand out to help him up.

“I was looking for something! So I went to The Family Business to get some information and  _ then _ I heard about the missing babies so I thought I’d help and--”

“Dad. The reason Cassie and I became hunters? Because you  _ can’t _ . Someone needed to look after your backside whenever you ran off into danger.”

“I can!”

“I’ve seen you get attacked by a rabbit,” Gabriel told him, dryly. 

“You do give off a very non-threatening aura,” Cas supplied.

“Well I can still h-mffh-!” 

“Shh! What is that?”

All three were forced back, slamming against the rear wall of the store. Castiel’s trajectory carried him clean through a display of dolls. Gabriel, who landed against the stuffed animals, was up on his feet first. The hag stood a few feet away, arm still stretched outward from having thrown them. Gabriel thrust the flashlight at Chuck, “Hold this,” and pulled a larger knife from his belt. Iron.  They’d been prepared before entering.

Cas pushed himself upright, head swimming. 

Right, banishing spell.

“ _Leig seachad an ceangal sin,_ ” Cas chanted as Gabriel swung the iron knife at the hag, catching her on the arm. She shrieked in pain, clutching her skin as the affected area began to burn. “ _Agus smàl an solus sin,_ ” The hag tried to scramble around Gabriel to get to Castiel instead. Gabriel blocked her path, swiping at her again, but missing the strike. “ _Agus fuadaich an sídhe air ais gu'n àite-breith._ ” She lunged at him again, screeching. “ _Сum sabhailt ar naoidhein gun am breith, agus cum dùinte an geata uamhasach seo!_ ”

The hag’s howling cut off suddenly as she blinked out of existence, banished again to the faewildes. Cas sighed, leaning the back of his against the wall.

He bolted up a second later. The babies!

Gabriel was ahead of him as he raced through the back doors. Instead of an employee break room, the space behind the door was a stairwell, steeply cutting down to the basement level. The faint yowling of infants could be heard echoing from the room beneath them. 

Cribs lined each wall, ten in total. Six had been filled so far. Castiel shivered to think of what the hag would have done if she’d found all ten children. He walked over to one of the cribs, reaching down to try and soothe the child, gently petting over her tiny head, unsure of what else to do.

Gabriel had no such issues. He leaned over one of the cribs, scooping out the baby inside and soothing her, murmuring nonsense as he bounced her gently. The baby made a few more unsure sounds before falling silent, one tiny hand reaching up to try and curl into lapel of Gabriel’s jacket.

“You’re good at that,” Cas noted.

“Sure am. Took care of you, didn’t I?”

Chuck stumbled down the steps, rubbing the side of his head. “Oh...that’s a lot of them.” 

“No kidding, dad. You wanna call it in?” Gabriel asked, not taking his eyes off the infant. A small smile played at his mouth as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I think the little ones want to go home now.”

 

***

 

Police swarmed the area as soon as it was called in. Castiel, Gabriel and Chuck watched as a baby swaddled in a pink blanket was passed to the weeping mother they’d met earlier. 

“I think now’s about time to make our careful retreat before someone starts to clue into the fact that we aren’t actually FBI,” Gabriel murmured.

They walked away from the crime scene, steps slow as not to arouse suspicion. Their father looked predictably twitchy but both sons ignored him until they were outside of bubble of scrutiny. 

They walked their father to his car. “Now,” Gabriel said, pointing sternly at the vehicle. “You're gonna get inside and drive back home.”

“How did you manage to get all the way out here without Aunt Amara dragging you back by the ear?” Cas asked. After the third time their father had gone missing on a research trip, Amara had laid a spell on him that would warn her if he left the town's radius. 

Chuck fiddled with his keys. “Ah. I might've. Found another spell to break that.”

Gabriel blinked at him. “She's literally just going to kill you this time.”

Chuck winced. “Yeah….probably. Hey, thanks for looking out for me. Again.” He climbed into the cab of his beaten old Dodge. Cas called out to him before he closed the door. 

“Dad. What were you even looking for?”

His father's eyes lit up with familiar excitement. “It's called the Shield of God.”

“What do you need with a shield?” Gabriel asked. 

“That's the thing! I don't actually think it  _ is _ a shield. I-I don't want to say anything else right now but, if I'm right, this is  _ big _ . World-ending big.” 

Neither brother looked convinced but, as was expected of their father, he was too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice. The truck rumbled to life and he pulled out of the empty parking lot. Cas waved. Gabriel kept his arms crossed over his chest, as he had for the entire walk. 

They made their way over to where they'd left the Corvette, parked one lot away from where Chuck had left his truck. It wasn't until they were inside the car that Cas spoke. “Have you ever thought about having a family, Gabriel? Just. Back there. You were really good with those kids.”

Gabriel rubbed one thumb over the steering wheel.  “Nah. That’s not really the life for me. You can go ahead and have kids, though. I can be the cool uncle.”

“That wasn’t what I asked,” Cas pointed out, his voice gentle.

“Nope,” Gabriel popped the ‘p’ on his lips again. “But that’s how I’m answering.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a stuffed platypus, plopping it onto the Corvette’s dash.

Cas snorted. “You stole a stuffed  _ platypus _ ?”

“His name is Dirk,” Gabriel said, picking the thing back up again and holding it in front of Castiel, pinching one paw from behind to make it look like it was asking for a handshake. “And you will treat him with respect.” 

Cas looked from the stuffie, to Gabriel, and back, before taking the paw between thumb and forefinger and giving it a shake. “Hello...Dirk.”

“That’s better.” Gabriel set the plush back on the dash and started up the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Faerie Doors are actual things that you can buy! Look it up! That being said, don’t mess with that shit. Seriously. Just don’t.


	3. Midnight Marauder

“Boom!”

Castiel startled awake. The motel mattress springs creaked under him in protest, along with every muscle in his body. “Why? Wha’appen.”

“Found him!” Gabriel slapped down a paper onto his lap. Cas flinched at the feeling. “It’s gotta be him, Cassie. We finally have a solid lead.”

Cas was still trying to remember how to read the English language. “This is...a university newspaper?” he managed, after a long session of blank staring.

“Yep. Read it.”

“Why are you awake? It’s-- 7:30AM. You’re usually not up until 9.”

“Couldn’t sleep.” Gabriel plucked the newspaper from Cas’ lap. “Listen to this. ‘There’s Something in the Water: Or is there? A rash of illness has broken out here at Crawford Hall. Last week alone,  six students reported symptoms including - but not limited to - headaches, dizziness, nausea, loss of vision and even hallucinations.”

Castiel yawned and laid back down again. “Prolly a bunch of college kids on drugs,” he mumbled, pressing his face to the thin motel pillow.

“I don’t think so. According to this, the kids who did have ‘hallucinations’ all saw crazy different things. One kid saw an alligator in the sewers. Another saw a woman in white wandering down the halls. Another claims to have been abducted aliens.”

“Still could be drugs.”

“Come  _ on _ , Cassie. This kind of widespread chaos? It’s Loki’s M.O. Now get up, get showered and get in the car, Hotpants. We’re driving.” Gabriel smacked him on the leg and pranced away, well out of strangling range.

 

***

 

Once caffeinated, Cas posed as a newly hired TA and went to go interview the students. What he came back with was a mix of ghost stories, urban myths and accounts of things that could be nothing but drug-related hallucinations.

“I don’t know, Gabriel. This doesn’t seem like Loki. This seems like a series of unexplained coincidences.”

“Cas. We’re hunters. There’s no such thing. There’s a Trickster in this town. I can feel it.” Gabriel eyed a passerby, scowling at her as though she were Loki in disguise.

“The only lead I have is that all these events happened near, or in, the same building. I suspect Loki doesn't have much of a desire to be location-bound.” Castiel pointed out.

“Doesn't matter. We'll go and interview everyone in that building. And the people in the surrounding area. What's around there?”

“Off the top of my head? A convenience store, an auto shop and an apartment complex.”

“Well, let's hit the pavement then.”

 

***

 

The convenience store yielded only a bored college student working the cash. Nothing inside set off either of their internal alarms, so they left. Interrogating every employee simply wasn't viable. They needed to settle with the broad strokes. For now.

The next stop was the auto shop. It was a small place, little bigger than a house with two garage doors, both currently open. A truck sat in one of the bays, hood propped open and a mechanic buried to his elbows in the engine.

“Excuse me. Hello, I was wondering if you knew anything about…” Castiel trailed off, forgetting the plot of his sentence as the mechanic drew himself out of the car's inner workings to look at him.

Castiel hadn't been faced with this much unrealistic beauty since he'd met Hannah. He wasn't prepared for this, not today, not on so little sleep. He struggled to compose himself and haltingly continued. “About the. Strange things happening. Here.”

“My bro just moved here and keeps telling me about people seeing ghosts and stuff but I'm not going to believe him until I see one for myself. You have any idea to what's been going on around here?” Gabriel cut in to rescue him, though his tone suggested that Cas was going to be roasted to an inch of his life as soon as they got back in the car.

“Huh? You talkin’ about the prof who did the swan dive last week? I've heard about being scared to death but that's somethin’ else, huh?” The mechanic smiled at him and oh. Oh  _ no. _

“You don't seem too upset about it,” Cas managed to say.

“Between you and me? That prof wasn't a good guy. He was married with two kids but you couldn't tell from how he carried on. You know how students say that they'll do  _ anything  _ to get their grades up? I guess he took it seriously. From what I know, he had a girl up there with him the day he died.”

Gabriel lit on that. “Did you know who she was?”

“Nah, never saw her for myself. Just rumours. But I believe it. Between you and me, I think he deserved it. They all did.” The mechanic's eyes lingered on Cas and he found himself standing a little straighter under the scrutiny. “You know...if you  _ are _ new around here I could show you around…”

Gabriel snorted once, turned on his heel, and promptly left.

Cas sent a puzzled look at his brother's retreating back and then turned his attention back to the mechanic. The name tag on his coveralls proclaimed him as 'Justin’. “That's very kind of you,” he said, his words sincere. “But I think I'll be busy for some time. But if I have any further questions would I be able to consult you?”

Justin's expression wavered from startled to confused to mildly offended. It finally settled into something benign. He smiled again, though it looked more strained than the last. “Yeah. Sure. No problem.”

“Thank you for the offer, Justin. I'll be seeing you.” Castiel told him politely and left.

Gabriel's hand caught the back of his head as he walked out out of the shop. “What is  _ wrong _ with you?”

“Ow! What?”

“Explain to me how you ever managed to get a girlfriend?”

Cas blinked at him. “What did I do?”

“Blew your chance with  _ that _ guy is what you did. I raised you better than this, Cassie,” Gabriel looked  _ wounded _ .

“You think that he--No! He was being kind,” Cas protested.

“Kind shmind. He was into you and you need to get laid. He's hot. And you go both ways. It was perfect. Why else did I give you two some space?”

“...space," Cas echoed. "First of all, you walked two feet away and then hid behind the door to hear what happened. Second of all, I do  _ not _ need to 'get laid'." He illustrated his point with air quotes. That'll show him.

“And good thing I did, because I can give you pointers for next time.” Gabriel clapped a hand on Cas’ shoulder, leading him away.

“Next time?”

“Next time.”

 

***

 

“It's not him, Gabriel, I'm sorry.” They were sitting at a table inside their motel room, notes scattered across its surface. “The guy who got attacked by the alligator was known for hazing and hated by his peers, the one who was abducted by aliens was a RA that took his duties far too seriously, and pervert professor - the only one to die - was cheating on his wife and taking advantage of students. The only thing they have in common is that they all... _ earned _ it, so to speak. The worse the ‘crime’, the harsher the punishment. And from what you told me, Loki dishes out chaos for chaos’ sake, not for righteous retribution. They're not the same people.”

Gabriel huffed a sigh and leaned back over his chair, looking exhausted. He eyed the popcorn ceiling, scowling at it as though it had personally thwarted him.

“I do agree we have a Trickster in this town. I just don't think it's Loki.”

“So what are we supposed to do about it?”

“Do...we  _ have _ to do anything?”

Gabriel gave him a sharp look. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t...condone what’s happening here, necessarily, but if only people who deserve it are getting hurt, then I don’t see the harm in letting this one slide.”

Gabriel sat up straighter. “What did you just say?”

“I don’t see the harm in letting this slide?”

“No, the other part.”

Cas thought back. “They deserved it?”

Gabriel snapped his fingers and pointed at him. “And who was the last person you heard to say that?”

Cas went silent again, and then looked up, shaking his head. “No.”

“Oh, yes.”

“It can’t be him. He was...kind. I didn’t feel any malice from him.”

“You got taken in by the baby greens, Cassie. Happens to the best of us.” Gabriel stood and patted his shoulder, comfortingly. He made a beeline for his bed, and the duffel sitting at the foot of it. “Doesn’t matter if these douches earned it or not, we can’t let a monster act as judge, juror and arbiter. What happens if he gets carried away? Or starts taking people out for pettier crimes? It’s a nice thought but….he’s a Trickster. And we can’t trust those.” Gabriel dug out a wooden stake, the end sharpened to a point. After the run-in with Sleipnir, they’d had the foresight to stock up. After all, they wouldn’t always have well-placed wooden chairs to use for weapons.

Cas rubbed his forehead and took the stake from Gabriel’s outstretched hand. “I suppose so.”

“This one’s got flair, but at the end of the day, he’s still a monster. Anyone who thinks that they can make a deal with them and have them hold up their end of the bargain is an idiot.”

Cas frowned. “I didn’t say anything about making a deal…”

“Doesn’t matter. We’re killing him before he can hurt someone else. Now, Let’s go.”

Cas followed his brother, his stomach twisting unpleasantly all the while.

 

***

 

Breaking into the auto shop wasn’t any more difficult than it was getting into the toy store. Gabriel straightened, scowling at the lock. “If dad beat us here too, I’m siccing him on Loki instead.”

“Ah yes, and then he’ll study him to death.”

“Perfect! It’ll be slow and painful, just how I want it.”

The inside of the shop was dark and quiet. The truck from before sat in one of the bays, the hood closed for the night. Spare parts lay littered over a desk, along with various sheafs of paper.

Cas walked over to it, sifting over its contents, looking for anything damning - a vague statement at best. A copy of the university newspaper lay atop a stack of invoices but that hardly proved anything. They'd read that paper too.

Cas peeked at the names on the receipts. Small repairs were billed to Arthur Cox, the professor, and Curtis Stone, the alien abductee victim. It wasn’t a smoking gun but coupled with what they already suspected...Cas sighed and picked them up. “Gabriel, look at this. ….Gabriel?” Cas turned, seeing nothing but an empty room behind him.

A door near the very end stood ajar and Cas stepped toward it, flashlight in hand.

“Gabriel?” he called again, shining the beam of the flashlight at the space beyond the door. He saw nothing but inky blackness, the light effectively absorbed by the murky deep. It looked almost solid but when Cas passed his hand through it, it was just empty air. But he heard the light tinkling of music behind - or within - all the dark, along with the murmur of voices.

“What’s all this?” Gabriel.

“A peace offering.” Justin's voice. So Gabriel  _ was _ right.

“Gabriel!” Cas called again, louder. He stepped forward, cautious. The ground beneath him felt solid enough, but without the ability to see in front of himself, he couldn't trust it. Cas slowly sunk into the darkness, keeping his pace slow and cautious. The flashlight remained on for his own sanity, though it didn’t help illuminate anything for shit.

“Where's my brother?”

“He’s fine,” Cas heard Justin say. “He’s safe.” Debatable. “I just wanted to talk.”

There was a heartbeat of silence and then, “So talk.”

“You go ahead and have your fun, an' I hit the road, that’s it.”

“So you can go and terrorize some other town of people?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it terrorizing, not when I just take care of the ones that deserve it.”

“You know, I gotta admit, I like your style, I do. But that doesn’t mean I can let you go and pass your own version of judgement on humans.” And there was that tone of voice again, the one that sounded too scornful to suit the brother that Castiel knew.

The air felt a little thicker now, more...elastic. As though Cas had reached the edge of a bubble which was now resisting his escape.

Justin laughed. “My orders come from a little higher than that, pal.”

“Loki?”

Another laugh, this one more genuine than condescending. “Yeah, no, I don’t work for that son of a bitch. Think higher. All you need to know is that I do as I’m told, Gabriel.  And I just follow orders.”

Gabriel didn’t question how the guy knew his name. But then, after spending so much time around creatures that were certainly more powerful and arguably smarter, little tricks like knowing one’s name stopped being surprising. “So your ‘orders’ told you to toss a guy out a window and plot out an entire alien abduction?”

“No one told me I couldn’t have some fun with it.” Cas could almost see him shrug. He struggled at the edge of the bubble, that invisible line he couldn’t break through.

“I’m going to have to pass on your 'peace offering', sorry. Instead, you give me back my brother, you arrogant dick.”

“Suit yourself.”

The bubble popped at the same time as the sound of chainsaw's whirring filled the air. Cas tumbled forward, landing on his hands and knees at the top step of what looked like an auditorium.

On the stage was what looked like a mockup of a kitchen that looked like it was pulled straight from the 1950s. A table in the middle was heaped over with sweets of every kind, including two, scantily-clad blonde bombshells flanking it on either side.

That was...one hell of a peace offering. Cas was mildly impressed with his brother for resisting, especially considering the little terrier that Justin had added into the mix. The dog sat at the edge of the stage, giving Gabriel his best puppy eyes, coupled with a sad little whine at being ignored.

Although, considering the chainsaw-wielding, behemoth who was descending on his brother, Cas supposed that Gabriel had more important things to pay attention to. The monster looked like he’d stepped out of a slasher movie, clad in a hockey mask and red plaid like a murderous lumberjack.

Instinctively, Gabriel raised the stake to try and block the attack. The blade of the chainsaw neatly sheared the wood in two. Gabriel looked down at the halves, shrugged, then brought both pieces down on the guy’s head.

Justin stood a few feet away, still clad in a mechanic’s coveralls, snickering at the spectacle. Gabriel darted around the chainsaw wielder, making a break for Justin. Cas struggled to his feet and body tackled the attacker before he could recover. He struggled to both keep the larger figure down, and avoid getting nicked by the chainsaw.

But a moment later, the man vanished. Without the shape of  the man to prop him up, Cas hit the ground again. He twisted around in time to see Justin sprawled out on one of the auditorium chairs, the stake driven into his chest by Gabriel’s hand.

The set vanished, food, women and dog included. The auditorium itself wavered at the edges and Cas hopped to his feet, grabbing Gabriel by the elbow. “The entire thing was an illusion. We need to go,  _ now _ .” 

They made a break for the doors, taking the steps two at a time. Cas tripped through the door as the floor beneath him vanished. Gone was the auditorium, replaced now with the messy inside of a supply closet. A broom clattered to one side, jostled to the floor with their hasty escape.

Cas rolled onto his back and laid there for a moment. The walls were solid here, the floor real and hard beneath him.

They were back in normal space.

Cas sat up and looked over at Gabriel. He lay beside Castiel, rubbing out a sore spot on his knee that he’d gained from his own fall. A muscle in his jaw ticked once, still clenched.

Cas reached over, laying a hand over Gabriel’s. “It’s okay. You got him.” 

He didn't know it at the time, but he was dead wrong.

 

***

 

“Is there something you want to tell me about Monte Carlo?”

“Excuse me?” Streetlights whizzed by them as they drove along. They were on the road again, having hightailing it out of the motel before the town could discover the mechanic’s disappearance.

“I just-- Everything you said earlier, about monsters. I've never seen you so... _ prejudiced _ .”

Gabriel snorted, incredulous. “Prejudice? They're monsters, Cassie. Not people.”

“They're sentient beings with thoughts and feelings, Gabriel. That's what our Father taught us, after decades of research. That's why we primarily go after the ones who actively prey on humans, or the tortured spirits who can't help but do so. But this? Gabriel, this isn't like you. So what?”

Gabriel's hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Drop it.”

“No.”

“Cas. I'm serious.”

“So am I. And I'm not letting this go until you give me an answer! It's been months and you never hold grudges that long! Well, unless it’s against  _ Bathalazar _ of all people and I know your reasons for that are petty at best--”

“Petty?! He’s a cheap imitation and you know it--”

“And we're still out here--”

“Pretending that he’s me. Stealing all my jokes--”

“--chasing after Loki so why--!”

“ _ I knew what they were! _ ” The words came out sharp and sudden, so unlike Gabriel's normal tone that it had Cas snapping his jaw shut. For a moment, no one spoke, and Cas knew better than to nudge Gabriel to continue, this time. Thankfully, Gabriel carried on of his own volition. “Fenrir going around and calling himself as Fen _ ris _ ? Not exactly a grade-A disguise. I knew what they were. I thought...I thought I was smarter than them. That I could handle them. And then they went and  _ sold _ me. All this, because I was I was too-- because I didn't think I could come home.”

Cas stayed silent for a long while, unsure of how to comfort his brother. The car's engine took over the task instead, rumbling away, deep and steady and soothing. “I'm glad you did,” he murmured, finally. “That you came home.” He looked over at Gabriel, though his brother had his eyes fixed on the road. “And we  _ will _ get Loki. And you'll have your retribution for what he did to you. That being said...I'm happy. Not happy that it happened but...happy that it bright you back. If that makes sense. So, thank you.”

Gabriel looked more relaxed now, easing up on the steering wheel death grip. “Shut up,” he murmured back, the beginnings of a smile playing on his face.


End file.
